Lacey Baldwin Smith, Northwestern history professor, 1922-2013

Mr. Smith was a 'delightful' teacher of English history

October 01, 2013|By Graydon Megan, Special to the Tribune

Lacey Baldwin Smith, a Northwestern professor, wrote “English History Made Brief, Irreverent and Pleasurable.” (Smith family photo)

Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith was a noted scholar specializing in Tudor- and Stuart-period English history who drew undergraduates and alumni alike to his lectures at Northwestern University with an engaging style that also marked his writing.

"He combined great historical insight with uncommon talent as a prose stylist. These intertwined gifts made listening to his lectures as delightful … as reading his books," Peter Hayes, chairman of Northwestern's history department, said in a statement provided by the university.

Mr. Smith's writings ranged from scholarly works that included biographies of Henry VIII and more recently Anne Boleyn to a volume titled "English History Made Brief, Irreverent and Pleasurable."

Mr. Smith, 90, died of natural causes Sunday, Sept. 8, in his home in Greensboro, Vt., according to his daughter. He spent summers in Greensboro for most of his life and left his home in Wilmette to live there full time after retiring from Northwestern in 1993.

Mr. Smith grew up in Princeton, N.J. After undergraduate studies at Bowdoin College in Maine, he received a master's degree and a doctorate from Princeton University.

Mr. Smith's father was a professor of art history at Princeton. "History would have been a constant part of my father's life," his daughter said.

His family roots were English, and his forebears came to America on the Mayflower.

He taught for a couple of years at Princeton and also at MIT before coming to Northwestern in 1955 as an associate professor of history. He became a full professor in 1962 and was chairman of the history department from 1971 to 1972 and from 1974 to 1977.

"His specialty was Tudor and Stuart England," said Lawrence McCaffrey, a retired professor at Loyola University who met Mr. Smith while a visiting professor at Northwestern. Those two periods stretched in England from the late 1400s to the early 1700s.

Dennison Smith said her father was one of the first historians to consider psychological aspects of some of those early monarchs.

"He looked at who Henry VIII was as a man, who (16th century Tudor) Queen Elizabeth was as a woman," Smith said.

"A great teacher, with great charisma and style and very popular with students," McCaffrey said.

After his retirement in 1993, Mr. Smith continued his involvement with Northwestern and taught courses in the Alumni Continuing Education series.

Mr. Smith was twice a Fulbright grant recipient, twice honored with a National Endowment for the Humanities Award and also a Guggenheim fellow. He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In recognition of his teaching skills, Northwestern each year recognizes two graduate student teachers with the Lacey Baldwin Smith Prize for Teaching Excellence.

Dennison Smith said her father's last writing effort, a historical novel, was just accepted for publication.

Survivors also include another daughter, Katherine Chandler Smith-Brannon; a son, MacAllister; a sister, Susan Baldwin; a brother, Nathaniel; and three grandchildren.